It was Old Southendian Cricket Club's
founder Ron Amesbury who had the idea to take the club on tour.
The club had been in existence for only 4 years, when in 1929, a bare
eleven players (A.Wire, L.Lewis, V.White, W.Burch, W.Goodridge, P.Holmes,
S.Pitter, R.Amesbury, D.Davis, R.Taylor and A.Taylor) made the very
long treck down to play three games in Devon (Plymouth, Sidmouth &
Torquay) and two in Sussex (Priory Park Chichester & The West
Sussex Mental Hospital). It was so successful that they returned the
following year, but only to Sussex as the travelling was too much.
Tour ceased in 1937 with the impending war, but due to Ron's diligent
work keeping in touch with club members wherever they were in the
world, fixtures started immediately in the 1946 season and tour recommenced
in 1947. Ron himself organized and toured every year until 1974. In
fact noone had appeared more times until 2003 when Andy Baker appeared
on his 35th tour. Andy is indeed hoping to make his 39th appearance
in 2007.
Tour can be hard work, but the reward is in the togetherness and cameraderie
that are created and the friendships that are made with our host clubs.
The fixtures themselves have changed over the years for many reasons.
Sometimes they get bored with us, sometimes we get bored with them
and sometimes we just get banned because someone runs round the boundary
naked. One fixture that has remained constant since the war is Horsham,
and in 2007 we will be playing our 60th fixture.
2007 will see our 70th tour, and indeed we have a new fixture against
Billingshurst, mainly because their fixture secretary owns a pub.
From 1956 to 1975 the tour was so popular the club played two fixtures
on the Wednesday, with everyone meeting in The Ship at Worthing. For
many years the tour used to be six days long, but in 1976 with the
advent of league cricket on a Saturday it was reduced to five. In
1988 tour reached an all time low when only six fit players turned
up for the fixture with Worthing, but luckily it was rained off. Dave
Sibley, our current Chairman grabbed the reigns and decided that tour
must continue, and somehow found five more players for the next two
days. Attendance picked up and in 2006 we had
34 people on tour, although several don't actually play, preferring
to feign either injury or incapacity and spend their time in the bar
regaling tales of tours gone by.
This year we leave on the 16th July and if you would like to join
us please email Chris Sorrell on hockleystalky@yahoo.co.uk.
Affiliated to:
The England and Wales Cricket Board
The Essex County Cricket Board
The South Essex District Cricket Board
The Club Cricket Conference
The Southend on Sea Sports Council
The Old Southendian Association
